Interactive Feedback Sessions

How it works

Following the initial online survey, the R U Different? team works with school staff to deliver the results back to the students who participated.

Students are each presented with a voting handset so that they can guess how many people in their school and year group are smoking, drinking or participating in other specific risk taking behaviours.

Their guesses are recorded in real time in graphical format and the correct answers are then revealed.

Why do it?

Consultation with Young People involves providing feedback and encouraging 2-way dialogue with students and this exercise helps schools to deliver this on a number of different levels. By encouraging Young People to guess at the results (as opposed to simply relaying them), we are often able to prove that significant gaps appear in what they believe is happening among their peers and the often 'positive' majority recorded behaviour.

The exercise is also useful for facilitating discussions about why myths about risk taking behaviour participation exist - or offer further insights and discussion into the topic area itself.

Who is doing it?

In 2012 this activity has been used by at least 12 of our participating schools in Salford, Swindon and Manchester. Some schools have used it as part of a full year assembly while others have used in smaller sessions as part of their PSHE and Citizenship development.

What have been the outcomes?

The schools who have used Interactive Feedback Sessions have generally recorded a greater shift in perceptions towards the reported behaviour. This is largely due to the higher recall rates generally associated when students are invited to find the answer, rather than simply being presented with it.

Schools who have backed the sessions up with posters, digital signage or other related classroom activities, which report the correct statistics, have also generally achieved higher recall rates - and therefore greater and more positive perception shifts – following the repeat survey.